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Special to the tribune
Nepal fails to break deadlock
2 Japanese, American share chemistry Nobel
Top Qaida leader in Pakistan directed Europe plot
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50 NATO tankers torched
in Pak
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Nehru, Bhutto scions to come face to face at literary fest
Shyam Bhatia in London The Nehru and Bhutto dynasties will be each represented at a London literary festival that is scheduled to kick off in the middle of this month, just as the Commonwealth Games draw to a close in Delhi.
Nayantara Sahgal, Jawaharlal Nehru's niece, and Fatima Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's granddaughter, will be the star turns of the event, the DSC South Asian Literary Festival, when they come face to face on October 21 and discuss their experiences of growing up in South Asia's two most powerful clans. The women have much in common, not least their dislike of the powerful heads of their respective families. Nayantara couldn't stand her cousin Indira and her dictatorial policies and never forgave her for the way she treated her mother, Vijaylakshmi Pandit, who was Nehru's beloved sister. Fatima's equally negative feelings for her aunt, Benazir, are made clear in her recently published book, "Songs of Blood and Sword". The two families started to interact with each other when Zulfikar Bhutto became President of Pakistan in 1971, later to be Prime Minister, and Indira Gandhi ruled in Delhi. His daughter, Benazir, famously accompanied him to the 1972 Shimla Summit where she met Indira for the first time. Benazir herself was twice Prime Minister of Pakistan. In her first term, 1988-1990, her time in office coincided with that of Indira's son, Rajiv Gandhi, who was Prime Minister of India between 1984 and 1989. The joke doing the rounds at that time was that if only Benazir and Rajiv could marry each other, they would solve the two countries' problems in no time. The Nehru dynasty continues to wield enormous influence in India with daily speculation that Rahul Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru's great grandson will be one day elected Prime Minister, just as Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's grandson, is readied for power in Pakistan. The festival itself, the first of its kind, brings together a mix of journalists and new young writers, such as the Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif, whose book "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" - set around the mysterious death of General Zia ul Haq - has received rave reviews. Other highlights of the festival include a $50,000 literary prize. A shortlist is to be announced in a week's time, but the long list of authors and their works being considered currently include "Way to Go" by Upamanyu Chatterjee, "The Immortals" by Amit Chaudhuri, "Arzee the Dwarf" by Chandrahas Choudhury, "The Story of a Widow" by Musharraf Ali Farooqui, "A Disobedient Girl Ru" by Freeman, "Neti Neti" by Anjum Hassan, "Atlas of Unknowns" by Tania James, "The Immigrant" by Manju Kapur, "Home Boy" by HM Naqvi, "The Hour Past Midnight" by Salma, "The Middleman" by Sankar, "The Wish Maker" by Ali Sethi, "Chef" by Jaspreet Singh and "The Temple-Goers" by Aatish Taseer. Festival founders are Bhavit Mehta, head of publishing house Saadhak Books, and print and online media project manager Jon Slack, a former chair of the UK Society of Young Publishers. Mehta, a graduate of London University, has been widely praised as one of the new breed of ethnic Indian publishers who could challenge the hold of more established publishing houses. He is currently associated with the production of children's books.
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PM POLL
Kathmandu, October 6 Poudyal (65) secured 109 votes, far below the magic figure of 301, in the 601-member Constituent Assembly of the country. Only 156 lawmakers were present for the election, out of which one MP voted against him, while 46 remained neutral. It was certain from the beginning today that Poudyal would lose as both UCPN-Maoists and the CPN-UML, with a combined strength of 347, in the House staying away from the entire election process. The 11th round of voting is scheduled for 3.00 pm local time tomorrow.
— PTI
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2 Japanese, American share chemistry Nobel
Stockholm, October 6 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the award honours their development of palladium-catalysed cross-couplings in organic systems. Heck, 79, is a professor emeritus at the University of Delaware. Negishi, 75, is a chemistry professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and 80-year-old Suzuki is a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. Negishi told reporters in Stockholm by telephone that he was asleep when the call came. "I went to bed last night well past midnight so I was sleeping, but I am extremely happy to receive the telephone call," he said. Officials at Hokkaido University were delighted at the news, said university spokesman Hidetoshi Nakatsuka. “Professor Suzuki has been mentioned as a candidate in the past few years and we've been waiting for this to happen,” Nakatsuka said. The method developed by the Nobel winners has been used to artificially produce cancer-killing substances first found in marine sponges, the academy has said in its citation.
— AP
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Top Qaida leader in Pakistan directed Europe plot
Berlin, October 6 Ahmed Sidiqi, an Afghan-German detained in Kabul in July, has told Western investigators that Mauretani is directing the conspiracy to stage Mumbai-style attacks on European cities, CNN quoted European intelligence officials as saying. They say Sidiqi has told interrogators that while in the tribal areas of Pakistan he met Mauretani, who was planning multiple attacks on European countries that would be similar to the strike on Mumbai in 2008. Little is known about Mauretani, but he is thought to be from North Africa and involved with Al-Qaida’s “external operations”. He is thought to be in the tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghan border, the report said. — PTI
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50 NATO tankers torched in Pak Peshawar, October 6 The militants attacked the supply vehicles at Khairabad town, located near the border between the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces. A witness said he first heard a powerful blast that was followed by indiscriminate firing. The attackers were travelling in a pick-up truck. Several oil tankers caught fire during the attack. Witness at the site of the attack said flames engulfed 50 tankers while only five were left unharmed. However, officials contended that only 26 tankers were hit by gunfire. A group of gunmen opened fire at nearly 40 tankers parked at Akhtarabad along the main highway between Quetta and the border town of Chaman, a witness said. The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the past week's attacks on NATO convoys and threatened more such assaults to avenge the US strikes against them. — PTI
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Talbot, US witness to India Partition, dies at 95 Indonesia flood toll rises to 86 
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